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Beth Lingren Clark AVP for Strategic Enrollment InitiativesOffice of Undergraduate Education

Multicultural Student Success for Undergraduate Students: Leveraging a Framework and Lessons LearnedDiversity Data Deep Dive 5: Classroom Climate & Multicultural Student Success

NOVEMBER 8, 2019

Shelly WymerDirectorOffice of Measurement Services

Steven HawksDirector of Undergraduate AssessmentOffice of Undergraduate Education

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1. Overview of the Strategic Enrollment Management Committee (SEMC)

2. Utilizing a Framework/Workflowa. U of M Priorityb. Charge to Multicultural Student

Success Committee (MSSC)c. Collect, Analyze, Share, Act

3. Lessons Learned 4. Recommendations with Data5. Proaction Cafe

Session Outline

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Session Outcomes

Participants will…

1. Be able to identify an appropriate framework/workflow to meet their needs2. Examine relevant sources of information while identifying missing sources3. Be able to synthesize and share findings4. Think about action strategies or recommendations related to their goal/charge5. Share ideas and approaches with others

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Overview of the Strategic Enrollment Management Committee (SEMC)

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Framework

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Data Committee

Purpose:● Assist in articulating research questions to guide projects● Conduct data mining and analysis to support work and projects of Strategic

Enrollment Management Committee● Meets every two weeks

Representatives include: Office of Undergraduate Education, Office of Institutional Research, Academic Support Resources -Student Degree Progress, Office of Measurement Services

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Multicultural Student Success Committee

The goal of the Multicultural Student Success Committee is to improve the retention, graduation, and success of undergraduate students of color on the Twin Cities campus.

Subcommittees:● Student Services, Support & Programs● Faculty and Classroom Experience● Outcomes, Structures, and Institutional

Barriers● Building Community Values● Training & Development

Committee Members representing:● Office of Undergraduate Education● Office of Equity and Diversity● Office of Student Affairs● Colleges

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Guiding Questions

● What is the classroom experience like for students of color?

● What types of service-oriented support make a difference for students?

● What experiences contribute to students’ success? What gets in the way?

● Why do first-year students leave?

● How do students experience belonging?

● How engaged are students (in- and outside the classroom)? What helps/hinders?

● How do students describe/experience campus climate?

● How does the University express its values relating to diversity, equity and inclusion?

● What can the University do to make a more desirable experience for students?

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Student Success

Development Outcomes

Graduation SatisfactionRetention

Learning Outcomes

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Student Success

BelongingAcademics Career Engagement Wellbeing Financial

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Strategic Enrollment Focus Areas

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Applied Framework

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CASE STUDY

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Board of Regents’ ResolutionReduce the four- and six-year graduation rate gaps for African-American, Latinx, and American Indian students by 50 percent by 2025 and establish a separate graduation rate goal for transfer students.Improve the satisfaction of students of color and American Indian students with the Twin Cities campus climate by reducing the difference compared to all other domestic students by 50 percent by 2025, as measured by the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) survey of undergraduates.Collect, record, and monitor the rates for locally significant underrepresented populations not currently recorded, including but not limited to Hmong and East African populations in order to identify gaps in the four- and six-year graduation rates.

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Multicultural Student Success CommitteeThe goal of the Multicultural Student Success Committee is to improve the retention, graduation, and success of undergraduate students of color on the Twin Cities campus.

Subcommittees:● Student Services, Support & Programs● Faculty and Classroom Experience● Outcomes, Structures, and Institutional

Barriers● Building Community Values● Training & Development

Committee Members representing:● Office of Undergraduate Education● Office of Equity and Diversity● Office of Student Affairs● Colleges

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● The MSSC Data Subcommittee was formed to link these questions to numerous sources where they may be answered or partially answered.

● Collaborative and iterative effort between the Data Committee and the MSSC

● Many subcommittees within MSSC worked to answer these question as well

COLLECT

What do we know? What don’t we know? What are we doing?

18 COLLECT - What we do know

● We started with a wealth of experience from the committee members themselves

● The Data Committee added a 242 slide Data Overview of Multicultural Student Success and Experience Metrics

● OMS consolidated over 1200 related survey items from institutional and programmatic surveys that contained student feedback

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● What are we doing in this space already?

● What’s working?

● Does the data tell the same stories as the students themselves?

○ Comment Coding

○ Listening sessions

COLLECT - What we don’t know?

“My identity does affect my classroom experience. One can simply tell when I am treated differently by peers or given different expectations compared to others. Although I will never let it hinder me, it does affect me.”

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● 85 programs, services or initiatives and 75 student groups were offered in 2018-19 specifically for indigenous and students of color

● Most programs are offered for students in the first year with less structured opportunities as students progress

● Transfer students have less offerings and structured opportunities/programs

COLLECT - What are we doing?

21 ANALYZE - Analysis and Synthesis

● Stay focused: Gather data that align to the Guiding Questions

● Work with stakeholders to prioritize analysis

○ What information would be more helpful first?

○ What gaps need to be filled right away?

● Determine synthesis format

○ Who will be using the data?

○ In what ways would the information be the most useful?

● Call for reinforcements

22 SHARE - Data Sharing and Use

● Early on, data was shared as subcommittees requested information to inform their efforts

● The result of the MSSC Data Subcommittee was the Executive Summary of Multicultural Student Data 2019

● It was circulated to committee members and used to support and vet recommendations

23 ACT - Recommendations and Implementation

● Subcommittees put forth their intervention plans

● Reviewed, vetted, and prioritized

● Final recommendations given - approval pending

● Implement recommendations or alternate solutions

● Monitor metrics - Are we moving the dial in the right direction?

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Lessons Learned from Framework● This is not a linear process!

● We were collecting, sharing, analyzing, and synthesizing data, and making recommendations at the same time.

● This can seem overwhelming so start small. Break up the work.

● There is a lot of data, AND there are gaps!

● Build time in to evaluate “what you are doing.”

● We can support recommendations with data!

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Recommendation: Examine Institutional Structures and Effectiveness

Action: Conduct an equity-minded examination of the campus-wide effectiveness in supporting multicultural students to evaluate and inform structural alignment and campus initiatives needed to meet students’ needs.

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Data Support: Examine Institutional Structures and Effectiveness

Top support services, programs, or offices critical to success as reported by students of color ● Multicultural Center for Academic* Excellence ● President’s Emerging Scholars* ● Asian Pacific American Resource Center* ● TRIO ● Writing Center ● One Stop ● Boynton Health ● Martin Luther King Jr. Program ● Center for Academic Planning and Exploration ● Pet Away Worry and Stress ● Student Counseling Services

Source: MSSC Listening Sessions

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Data Support: Examine Institutional Structures and Effectiveness

● Several students of color noted they feel programs related to their needs are underfunded, indicating that the University does not value diversity, equity, and inclusion.

● Students of color were significantly less likely than White students to agree that

○ the University provides an environment for the free and open expression of ideas, opinions, and beliefs.

○ the curriculum provides an adequate opportunity to learn about the social, historical, and intellectual contributions of a variety of people (e.g. people from different races and ethnicities, sexual identities, individuals with disabilities, etc.).

○ that students, faculty and instructors, administrators, staff, student government, and the campus community overall value diversity.

Source: 2018 SERU Survey

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Recommendation: Improve the Classroom Climate

Action: Convene a committee of distinguished faculty, along with staff from the Center for Educational Innovation, to address teaching practices that support positive classroom climate and recommendations to sustain inclusive practices and accountability.

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2018 SERU response from Student of Color

“The most meaningful experience I’ve had as a graduating senior is professors who despite having over 200 students take the initiative to know everyone’s names. This determination really just showed how much the professor cared and it makes you feel like they actually care. Because of this, more students were willing to go ask for help knowing the professor would do what he/she could unlike other professors who would simply say ‘look at the syllabus.”

What is one of the most meaningful learning experiences you have had at this University?

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Data Support: Improve the Classroom Climate

Percentage Agree/Strongly agree on: Overall, I feel comfortable with the climate for diversity and inclusion in my classes

Source: 2018 SERU Survey

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Data Support: Improve the Classroom Climate

• Black, Latinx, International, and White students are all significantly more likely than Asian students to indicate that they spend more time:

– Contributing to class discussion– Asking insightful questions in class– Bringing up ideas or concepts from different courses during class

discussions

• Black, White, and Latinx students are more likely than Asian students to have a class in which the professor knew or learned their names

Source: 2018 SERU Survey

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Data Support: Improve the Classroom Climate

Source: 2018 SERU Survey

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Data Support: Improve the Classroom Climate

Source: 2018 SERU Survey

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Data Support: Improve the Classroom Climate

Source: 2018 SERU Survey

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2018 SERU responses from Student of Color

“My faculty members do not represent me or look like me and sometimes it is discouraging. They also don’t understand, or care, about how personal factors/crisis can really impact school.”

“In our discussions I am the only Hispanic in the room. They are dismissive of what I have to say. Maybe it’s because I’m Hispanic. I feel like I have to prove that I know what I’m talking about.”

What is one of the most meaningful learning experiences you have had at this University?

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Recommendation: Increase direct support and programs for multicultural and underrepresented students.

Action: Invest in direct services and initiatives to support individual students throughout their undergraduate experience. The committee identified three specific initiatives:

● Implement success coaching as a model to provide holistic and individualized support for underrepresented students.

● Develop programming aimed at specific underrepresented populations beginning with indigenous men and men of color and expanding where data indicates.

● Invest in programs and retention initiatives geared beyond the first year and targeting transfer students.

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Recommendation: Success Coaching

This strategy has proven successful for low-income, first-generation and students of color at peer institutions. Ideally, UMTC would add more advising lines and/or success coaches to increase individualized support. Given financial limitations, an alternative is to create an extensive on-campus training program to embed coaching skills and techniques in existing academic advising, President’s Emerging Scholars and other student services units.

Source: MSSC Final Report

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Recommendation: Direct Programming

During the 2018-2019 academic year, staff and faculty men of color created the iMEN Retreat to support students identifying as indigenous men and men of color which was well received by students and community members.

Source: MSSC Final Report

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First Year Retention

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Discussion+ Questions

THANK YOU

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Proaction Cafes

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From your sphere of influence/knowledge, proceed through the framework:

● What is the priority?

● What is the charge?

● Inventory, analyze and synthesize

● What do you know?

● What don’t you know?

● What are you currently doing, if anything?

● Data Dissemination and discovery

● Recommend and implement action plan

● Who are the key stakeholders in your action plan?

PROACTION CAFE: Reflection and Discussion